Scenes from a natural disaster

San Diego is burning and we went to the beach.

It seemed a bit thoughtless and maybe irresponsible. But what would you do with four kids 90 degree weather and school canceled for a week? True we are supposed to keep the kids indoors to avoid the bad air. I probably would have but my brother is in town with his two kids and though they consider it serendipity that school's been canceled the week of their visit, they didn't really come to San Diego to sit indoors all day and play Scum. So yesterday after my brother's gentle cajoling, I agreed to go to the beach. We had heard the wind had shifted and that breezes were now coming off the ocean. The air at the beach wasn't as refreshing as we hoped but tolerable, definitely better than a smoggy winter day in Salt Lake. As for the possibility of being evacuated, our 72-hour kits were all packed and I gave my neighbor our cell phone number and told her to call us in the unlikely event of evacuation. Still the whole time I felt a bit like a truant. This may be why we had so much fun.

The tide was low and we had a great time wading and poking through tide pools. We saw crabs, limpets, sea snails, sea anemones and a starfish-- a starfish feasting on a mussel no less. I'm showing it to John and his cousin Nicolas. We also went swimming in a swim hole formed in the rocks at low tide. The water was a bit nippy but so clear that even with water to my shoulders I could see my toes in the sand. Schools of long silver fish swam with me. Mikaela, Lizzy, Zoey and John were also brave enough to plunge in the cold water. On a rock outcropping near us a dozen or so seals sunbathed.

So I'm glad I went to the beach. I don't know what else to do. The whole city--the part I live in--is this strange quiet. Everything has been canceled--soccer practice, church activities, yoga. We are all just waiting. At the beginning of the week, I was waiting for disaster. Now I'm waiting for normal. This morning I thought I'd get caught up on my laundry and then I heard them requesting on the radio that we conserve energy by not using air conditioning or doing laundry. So I decided it was my civic duty to not do laundry. I told Bill this and he pointed out that our dryer is gas powered.

Bill is always my reality check. Not only was school canceled for the girls but UCSD is closed as well and Bill's clinic was canceled. I think this would be a lovely time for him to just hang out with us. He said he needed to work anyway. I reminded him as I often do, of a snow day our freshman year in college when school was canceled and I called him up and invited him to play in the snow drifts with me and he said, "I have to study." The way I see it, there are only so few snow days in life and you must seize the day. But he says, "I got into Medical School didn't I." Bill may have a point. No other fellows showed up to clinic and there were quite a few patients in need of help. I suppose it is a good thing the world is full of Bills who go to work even when they don't have to. It may also be good that in the midst of disaster I take my kids to the beach.

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

About a week ago the girls complained one time too many about dinner. As a result we followed through with an oft repeated threat to have Kraft Mac and Cheese every night for a week (I think we originally threatened a month--but a week was long enough.) The first night I made three packages to feed our family. We had some leftovers but not much. By the last night I made one box and our family of six just couldn't finish one package.

I did not expect to grow so sick of Kraft Mac and Cheese so fast. There were some positives about the whole Mac and Cheese experiment. The deal was that if anyone complained about dinner they had to eat an extra night of Mac and Cheese. It was really refreshing to have complaint-free dinners. Also, I had a lot more time each evening because I didn't really have to make dinner. We also we saved money. By the end we fed the whole family for less than a dollar. But I never want to see Kraft Mac and Cheese again.

Mother of 8 for a day

Some of you know that I had been training to run the St. George Marathon. Unfortunately I hurt my hip on a long run in July and I wasn't able to run. Instead on the day of the Marathon, Oct. 6, I watched one of my running partners 4 kids. My kids thought this was about as fun as Christmas. One of the things they did was do a play-- a unique interpretation of Rumpelstiltskin pictured below. Back row L-R Lizzy,10; Marin, 13; Will, 1; Jackie, 9; and Malachi, 7
Front Row: Zoey,7; John, 3 and Sofia, 4. If you aren't sure which ones are Mitchells you have no bushiness reading this blog.

This picture sums up the weekend perfectly.

By the way Colleen, the Sanders' mom, did great in the marathon as did our other running partner Jen Winn. As for me there's always next year.

B is for Blogging

A couple of weeks ago--starting on Tuesday Sept. 18th--I taught John's preschool. We studied the letter B and the number 2. One of our activities was painting with blue bubbles. I mixed blue paint powder into bubbles and then the kids blew bubbles on the paper. When the bubbles popped they left a marbleized bubble print.

Note the great smocks. One of the preschool moms altered some of Bill's extra white coats into painting smocks.

For science one day we studied balloons, balls, and bubbles. A little pre-K intro to physics and chemistry. We explored: Why do balls fall and bubbles float? What's inside a balloon? Why do some balloons float? This was a big hit until we brought a bunch of helium balloons into the room. It was frightening how quickly children's innate curiosity was snuffed out by greed. Suddenly the only question anyone cared about was, "Can I have a red (substitute for child's favorite color) balloon?" Next time I'll have all blue balloons. We also read "Blueberries for Sal" and ate blueberries.

On another day for P.E. we did some yoga. I thought it would be fun to do the life cycle of a butterfly. We read the very hungry caterpillar and then acted the story out. I modified some poses to work. Below we are all being caterpillars (cobra to child's pose.) Then we went into cocoons (child's pose with head on stacked fists) and then came out as butterflies (butterfly pose). This was a big hit.